welcome to al jazeera america. i'm del walters. here are the stories that we are following for you. >> are we going to sit down and have a conversation or aren't we? >> it is absolutely absurd what they believe is in the best interest of or country right now. >> the shut downcontinues. more weapons inspectors will be heading into syria. and north korea putting its forces on alert.

[ technical difficulties ] >> but they just did not talk to each other, now the debate over ending the government shutdown has also become about the debt ceiling. libby we are hearing reports that harry reid could rollout a stand-alone measure to raise the debt ceiling. what are you hearing about that? >> that's right, dell. watch for that today. a bill like that would still have to ultimately pass the house which as you know would be a heavy lift. a bill like this would require 60 votes to overcome a filibuster. for some democrats who are facing tough reelection bids next year, this could be a dicey

vote, which is why it's believed this technique has been avoided so far, a bill that harry reid could put forth would basically call for raising the debt limit, and that's often perceived as allowing the government to just spend more money. but in actually it is really allowing the government to pay the bills that have already racked up. so stay tuned today. >> [ inaudible ] house speaker boehner says he is not drawing a any lines in the sand. what does he mean? >> he is saying look, the problem is not here. take a listen to speaker boehner yourself. >> by refusing to negotiate, harry reid and the president are putting our country on a pretty dangerous path. listen, there has never been a president in our history that did not negotiate over the debt

element, never, not once. matter of fact, president obama negotiated with me over the debt limit in 2011. he also negotiated with the blue dog democrats to raise the debt ceiling in 2010. so the way to resolve this is to sit down and have a conversation to resolve our differences. >> reporter: so the speaker saying the problem is not with him or his caucus, although in the past he has taken a much firmer stance. and bottom line is the white house isn't going to sit down to talk if the affordable care act being involved. >> how are americans reacting to the first full week of the shutdown. >> reporter: here in washington it is being felt. and i just ran into some people

who were so frustrated because they didn't realize so many parts of washington would be shut down for a trip they have been waiting months to take. and we're hearing response from members of congress. a democrat of california spoke of that today. >> we have now experienced in the last week of this republican government shutdown, the largest drop in american's confidence in their economy. and if our republican colleagues don't think this is serious. shutting down the government intentionally so they can get their way on items that have nothing to do with budget policy, then they should take a look at what the american people are saying. they are tells us that they have very little confidence that this republican congress will allow the economy to continue to improve. >> reporter: here are the numbers that count, though,

dell, american's opinion of congress, low 11%. and here is a really important number, their feelings about their own member of congress is also down, in the low 40s. that's really significant, because a lot of times people may say i hate what congress is doing, but i like the man or woman i sent to washington. >> now we turn to mike viqueira who is standing by live at the white house. mike, what is the white house saying about speaker boehner's remarks earlier this morning. >> well, in two hours the president, it was just announced will appear in the brady briefing room. he will make a statement on the continuing shutdown, the debt ceiling approaching in nine days and take questions from the white house press corps. speaker's john boehner's office and the president's press office let it be done that the

president picked up the phone and called john boehner but it's more a talk to the hand or at least talk to harry reid strategy. the are the reiterating the point that he has made over the last couple of weeks he will not negotiate in a hostage situation or as we put it with a gun to the heads of the american people. all of that according to most people who have a steak in this economists, treasury officials, administration officials, even some members of congress all of that will pail in comparison if the u.s. potentially goes into debt. we'll hear in minutes from the president. it's all an attempt to maintain a unified front.

the white house does not want to relive what happened two years ago. most democrats didn't like the way that turned out. they are encouraging the white house to stand firm. dell. >> mike, thank you very much. and i will see you in two hours. the deadlock in washington dragging down wall street and probably your 401k for a second day. stocks are in the negative territory as john boehner suggested there will be no quick resolution in site. as you can see the dow jones industrial average now down 87 points. and the imf is weighing in on the debt ceiling debacle. it warns of grave dangers if congress doesn't raise the u.s. borrowing limit. saying that a failure to act could do serious damage to the global economy. the group saying the that america is driving the worldwide

recovery, adding we should all continue to see growth if political squabbling doesn't get in the way. one consequence of the shutdown may be victims of domestic violence. kimberly has more. >> reporter: hank runs a shelter for victims of domestic violence in washington, d.c. her program relies on government money to function, and already dealing with a shortage because of federal cuts. but now with the partial shutdown she fears that soon -- >> there won't be anyplace for survivors to run to in an emergency, and more survivors will end up on the streets or end up -- god only knows -- dead as a result of domestic violence because they had no place to go. >> reporter: she estimates she can keep the shelter running for about another two weeks, then the emergency money she receives from the government will run out. president obama claimed there is

a way to end america's fiscal dead lock that has kept government programs closed for a week. >> there are enough republican and democratic votes in the house of representatives right now tend to the shutdown. >> reporter: but a top republican in congress is blaming democrats and the president. on october 17th the u.s. faces defaulting on its debt payments for the first time in history. >> the president had us all down to the white house last week only to remind me that he was not going to negotiate over keeping the government open over the looming need to increase the debt limit. the president's refusal to negotiate is hurtting our economy and putting our country at risk. >> reporter: but for now it is ordinary americans who are suffering with government services they counted on

disappearing. the us transportation safety board says it won't now investigate some transportation accidents that includes one over the weekend that killed a contractor working on the washington, d.c. highway system. and the cdc is no longer investigating flu outbreaks. it's yet another government program put on hold, potentially putting thousands of americans at risk. north korea has put its military on high alert, the country is outraged that the u.s. is preparing for naval drills off of the coast of south korea. hairy faucet has more. >> reporter: this was the uss gorge washington in the south careen port on tuesday. it was scheduled to gather with other south korean and japanese

ships offshore. a statement from the korean people's army said the military has received an emergency order to keep themselves fully ready to promptly launch operations at anytime. north korea also warned of unpredictable disasters if the u.s. and its allies continued to behave in this way. >> translator: the speculate the north's order is designed to criticize the u.s. aircraft carriers arrival in our port. >> reporter: according to the intelligence agencies kim jong

un had said he intended to reunify the korean peninsula within the next three years. and confirmed that north korea has restarted its nuclear reactor, and had tested a long-range rocket engine, both events happening in august. relations between the koreans had been improving from the situation we saw in march and april, but the tone has recently shifted again with north korea attacking the south korean president by name, and she herself pledging soon to have the capability to destroy a north korean nuke on the launch pad. it may be that she has decided to switch tactics again. britain and iran are in talks to reopen their embassies. william hague saying on tuesday that both countries are in talks

to move forward. this following a 2011 attack on a british embassy in tehran. in syria is team of inspectors are now in the country to help destroy the country's chemical weapons stockpiles. banky moon now outlining the plan to handle the daunting, dang ruse task. marches against egypt's interim government are once again underway. students have gathered and are demanding that mohammed morsi be reinstated. we talked with our correspondent in cairo a about the protests. >> reporter: what we can say about this is this week the anti-coup alliance says they intend from today, tuesday,

until friday to have increased protests at universities around egypt. in at least three different cities in egypt, we have had students leaving their classes and going out and demonstrating. cairo, a thousand students left their classes and stayed inside the campus, because the military authorities don't have legal permission to go on to the campus to suppress the demonstrations. thousands left their classes and demonstrated and then a small proportion of that thousand left the campus and marched to the square where the sit-in was staged in august and violence was used to break up the sit-ins, and in other cities in egypt, we had protests, and outside of cairo, the university where mohammed morsi, the deposed president went and studied as a student, and

therefore groups of students who were pro military and groups students who were for the anti-coup alliance clashed there. so you have clashes there. >> supporters of the muslim brotherhood say they will continue the demonstrations because they believe the government wants to suppress their democracy. in brazil a teachers' strike has taken a violent term. at least 15 people were arrested. a small group of activists setting a bus on fire and vandalizing government buildings as well. tens of thousands peacefully marched though, calling for the government to provide teachers with higher wages. there is a new effort to

raise the minimum wage, and a new look at the $100 bill. on inside story, we bring together unexpected voices closest to the story, invite hard-hitting debate and desenting views and always explore issues relevant to you.

>> the latest battle over minimum wage is being fought at washington state. some workers still the amount they get is still not enough. >> reporter: among those cam page for a $15 an hour minimum wage is this man. he says that raise sounds great, and guaranteed sick pay and vacation pay, all part of proposition 1. a six-year hertz employees, he currently makes $11.20 an hour, which is still not enough for his family of four. >> i came here to have a better life, you know. so we came here to achieve the

american dream and i just don't want to rely on public assistance. but scott sees a 63% in minimum pay as too much too fast. >> ultimately our prices are going to go up, we will have employees that will end up with reduced hours and possibly face job elimination. >> reporter: he says it would raise pay for about three-quarters of his is employees. the proposition wouldn't benefit all minimum wage workers here in the city of seatac, it is targeted at people working here at the airport and in the hospitalal industry within it. from janitors to bag age handlers, to food servicers, but

also at hotels nearby. campaign fund-raising records clearly show a battle between labor and business with unions supporting the increase, airlines and the hospitality industry opposing it. what is the broader economic impact? this doctor at the university of washington says there are so many moving parts it's hard to predict, and the research isn't definitive. >> the best research suggest that they do increase earnings for workers, decrease turnover for those employees, and they may damp down the number of those kinds of jobs that are there because they become more expensive to employers. >> turn out in this off-year election will be critical.

the fed has begun issuing the newest issue of the $100 bill. it's two years late and features lots of special features and tom akerman has more. >> reporter: he was never a u.s. president, but the face is universally recognizable thanks to his portrait on the $100 bill. and now that bill has two new features. other improvements will make it easier to be handled by vision-impaired users. some could be worth a lot more than $100 to bill checktors. experts say even the most sophisticated computers will be unable to reproduce the notes.

they are designed to confound those that might try to profit. the federal reserve figures up to two-thirds of those in existence exchange hands outside of the u.s. at any given time. the benjamins are popular in illegal commerce like drug trafficking. this is the first redesign of the bill since 1996, but you'll be still seeing plenty of the previous addition in circulation for months to come. >> it's u.s. government policy that all designs remain legal tender regardless of when they were issued. >> reporter: the u.s. dollar still enjoys enormous demand, but some believe the american's buck days are numbered. >> the chinese have $3.5 trillion u.s. dollars and

they are spending these dollars as quickly as they can, and it will not be long before the rest of us in the world will be thinking likewise. i do. >> reporter: but certainly the u.s. government, which insists the hundred dollar bill is as good as gold. still ahead it's best known as the god particle. we'll explain coming up next.

welcome back to al jazeera america. i'm del walters. here are your headlines. president obama is scheduled to speak less than two hours from now. he is expected to talk about the ongoing battle over the federal government and the looming debt ceiling showdown. a second team of weapons inspectors are headed into syria. the un secretary general calling for an expansion today.

north korea putting its troops on stand by. it is reacting to the u.s. bringing a carrier to south korea for planned military exercises there. the winners of the 2013 nobel prize in physics have just been announced. they were awarded the $1.2 million prize, for their contribution to our understanding of mass sub atomic particles. >> reporter: from the beginning there was the big bang when many scientists believe it all started. what was at first a hot dense cloud of energy then formed into prt particles. these became the building blocks of our world but why and how this happened continued to be a mystery. here scientists have been

shooting atoms at great speed down a tunnel to see what happens when they collide. in march they tentatively confirmed the existence of a prt call. the particle is named after the man who first suggested it might exist, peter higgs. >> we knew so little about where the particle might be and therefore how high an energy machine would have to go before it could be discovered. and there has been a long development over the years of the technology. >> reporter: now scientists are focusing on trying to understand how it works. like other important discoveries of the past, they hope overtime their work will lead to the

understanding of the physical word. and could change the lives of us all. i'm meteorologist dave warren, a calmer day across the northeast. but temperatures have cooled off quite a bit, not seeing any type of stormy weather like he had yesterday. it still hasn't hit 60 albany, so much cooler weather today but much calmer. it won't stay that way. here is the five-day forecast for washington, d.c. look at the rain coming in. and now it will slowly work its way north and bring with it a lot of rain, especially along the coast. this is just the 24-hour forecast, and it is about to move into d.c. later today and tonight, but then a heavy rain

arrives starting on thursday, friday, and saturday. it's warmer in the midwest, 83 degrees in denver, and it's helping to melt the snow. in south dakota that's snow on the ground there, slowly melting. so we are seeing the snow begin to melt with the warmer weather. now the tropical storm that is moving across the sea of japan. and now a lot of rains falling along japan, and it will continue to track to the north and then turn northeast, here it is over the next few days. watching that area closely, because just a lot of rain now, seeing flooding conditions there in japan. >> dave thank you very much. and we thank each and every one of you for watching al jazeera america. "the stream" is coming up next, and for updates throughout the day you can go to our website,

aljazeera.com.